More than 1,000 new homes could be coming to Elburn, Illinois, in one of the largest potential developments that would capitalize on a hot new construction market in the Chicago suburbs.
The commercial brokerage CBRE listed 445 acres in Elburn, 50 miles outside of Chicago, for sale Wednesday. The land is zoned for farmland but slated for single-family residential development per the town’s land use plan.
With a population of about 6,500 as of the 2023 U.S. Census, the proposed development, if taken on, could expand Elburn by at least 15% if 1,000 new homes are added, with one person per residence.
Builders with new developments in the Chicago suburbs sold more than 5,000 homes last year, a benchmark only achieved three other times in the past 15 years, according to a report from real estate consultancy Tracy Cross & Associates. Overall, new home sales increased 15% last year, and more developments in the Chicago suburbs are underway.
National homebuilder Lennar’s new sold-out Fox Pointe development is less than a mile from the for-sale acreage. New homes from local builder Shodeen Homes are under construction and for sale in Elburn in the Elburn Station development.
Elburn is seen as Chicago’s most western suburb, neighboring the larger towns of St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva. It is 3 miles from the Elburn Metra train line that connects to Chicago.
In the first quarter, 40 new home developments opened in the Chicago suburbs, according to the Tracy Cross report. Typically, 15 to 20 new developments open per quarter, the firm said. In Batavia, Pulte Homes opened its Ashton Ridge development last month with 73 single-family homes and 86 townhouses on 31 acres.
M/I Homes and Pulte are developing several new residential projects closer to Chicago.
M/I Homes gained approval for a 64-townhouse development on the site of a former office complex in Naperville. At the same time, Pulte will build two projects in Hoffman Estates: 164 townhouses neighboring the multiuse development Bell Works Chicagoland and another 69 townhouses in another office-to-residential development. Pulte plans to construct 42 single-family homes in Deerfield after demolishing an office space and another 490 units for an age-restricted community in New Lenox.
None of the underway developments are close to the acreage size of Elburn’s for-sale land, which could potentially house thousands of new homes. In September, St. Charles denied plans for a 970-acre development with 2,000 homes from Pulte called Charles Farm.
According to Homes.com data, the average value of a home in Elburn is $433,993, with an average price per square foot of $201.